Meadow Walk

Joe-Pye was as high as an elephant's eye . . .

. . . and Goldenrod glowed against the blue sky.

What an amazingly beautiful day to be wandering a late-summer meadow, aflutter with butterflies and resounding with trilling crickets.  My friend Sue brought me out to this meadow preserve that lies very near her Queensbury home, and the morning was fresh and cool enough that we welcomed the bright sun shining out of that cobalt-blue sky.  Here, Sue is peering among the foliage, hoping to find the source of a cricket's trill.

And here it was!  Not the typical shiny-black cricket we usually see, but a lacy green Tree Cricket.

Climbing the stalks of the tall Joe-Pye Weed were these fat pink pods of Hedge Bindweed gone to seed.

These fragrant clusters of Groundnut flowers were climbing on stalks along the nearby Warren County Bikeway.

The wildflowers along the bikeway form a beautiful butterfly garden, and today these flowers were alive with dozens of Painted Ladies.

Clusters of translucent Bittersweet Nightshade Berries glowed like ruby lamps in the morning sun.